


How Sakura Haruno Discovers Her Love for Fighting

by papiermachete



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Divergence, Cute Kids, Fighting, Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric, Ninja Academy, Pre-Genin Days
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-30 17:20:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17832839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/papiermachete/pseuds/papiermachete
Summary: Sakura Haruno is five-years-old when she decides that she really wants to become a ninja. Not a paper ninja. A shinobi.





	How Sakura Haruno Discovers Her Love for Fighting

Imagine age five Sakura, first day of ninja academy. Her parents figure that being at the academy would teach her beneficial things besides murder, like math and procrastination. She shrugs the civilian backpack over her shoulder, filled with her pencil bag and Mr. Kiwi, just in case something happens to her. Her parents walk her to the academy, and her father weeps quietly into his wife’s shoulder, lamenting the loss of his baby girl. Sakura grins wildly, excited to step into the establishment and make new friends like her mother has been telling her about all week.

This is her first chance to make friends with other kids her age. All of her cousins within the Haruno merchant clan are years older than her, the exception being baby Kirari, who is a baby, so not Sakura’s ideal playmate (she’s not even allowed to hold the baby!). Sakura giggles at the way the lush grass tickles her ankles before she steps into the building and is led down the hallway into her classroom. Inside, there are stairs which contain rows of desks, and Sakura has heard of all the good things that come with sitting in the front row, so she swings her backpack down into a seat near the door.

She’s overjoyed to be here today and make new friends, but she also knows that her mommy and daddy are waiting for her to come home, so she wouldn’t want to be late.

Next to walk in is a child with hair that reminds Sakura of the dandelions that sprout in her front lawn. She clenches her fist to strengthen her resolve before stepping in next to the girl. “Hello! My name is Haruno Sakura, and I’m just starting here. What’s yours?”

The girl is wearing a barrette to pin her hair back, and her eyes stare straight into Sakura’s, a blank expression quickly brightening up, “I’m Yamanaka Ino! But, you can call me Ino. My father says calling people by first names is a sign of friendship, and I want to be your friend, so can I call you Sakura?” Her exuberant voice rings out, her hand outstretched to Sakura, waiting on a single word.

“Yes.” Sakura is so proud of herself, the way she was when Mommy pinned up her first drawing on the fridge and called her a true artiste, and when her father praised her for learning how to tie her shoes. But this is better than that because this is Sakura’s first true friend, and she feels it is something worth protecting from all the world, maybe even her parents.

Ino clasps Sakura’s hands and holds them up between them, a solemn voice mismatched with her giant beam, “Then it is settled. We will be best friends!” They giggle at each other, and Ino sets down her stuff right next to Sakura.

It is when the next child walks in that things start to go awry.

For the next child to walk in is the rambunctious Kiba Inuzuka. With fluffy hair sticking up from all directions and clear red marks dripping down his cheeks like paint, Kiba walks in with a young puppy yipping from his sweatshirt. Now, Sakura was generally of the opinion that dogs are pretty great. Spectacular even.

But the moment that there was a shouting match between the fang-toothed child and her bright-eyed friend, Sakura’s decision was made. She’s not quite sure what it’s about, what being called dog-breath really means because her aunt always feeds her dog those minty chewable bones that are supposed to act like toothpaste and mouthwash, so Sakura thinks it’s probably a compliment.

But Sakura _knows_ that being called a mind-reading witch, while weird, is definitely an insult. After all, all the witches in Sakura’s stories have ended up being evil and needing to be punished by the good heroes. If anything, Ino is the opposite of a witch, and is instead like a fair princess.

If Ino is the fair princess, then Sakura is the shiny knight. (Perhaps if Sakura had known that this insult-party stemmed back from ages of childhood bad blood from get-togethers as children, she would have taken it down a notch. As it was, she was absolutely infuriated.)

Sakura furrows her eyebrows and pressed her lips together. She feels unable to contain her anger which would usually amount to a temper-tantrum, except her mommy has told her that she’s too old for things like that now. She tries to remember what Mommy would say (probably that she should take out Mr. Kiwi from her bag and squeeze him real tight).

But that’s not what she wants to do!

Sakura has never been in a real fight before. Most of the times she’s been teased by older cousins she was saved by her mommy swooping in and securing an apology for the teary-eyed babe. But, Sakura has seen fights before, has observed the build-up as someone swings their arm back and then forward, the clench of the fingers. She has seen the bruises that are left behind and demand the soothing of an ice pack.

But most of all, she remembers that absolute disapproval her mommy radiated whenever someone was caught in a fight.

Sakura realizes that for some strange reason, she is willing to protect Ino even from her mommy.

So she clenches her fist the way she saw her cousin Benny do, deciding that even though he broke his thumb, she’s willing to risk it. She stumbles out of her chair onto the steps next to the wild child, and before she can psych herself out, she throws her fist into Kiba’s cheek, putting all her might into the punch the way she puts all of her effort into coloring her pictures and going grocery shopping with her father.

Kiba lands on the ground, eyes threatening to water as he finally notices the child with pink hair framing her face, and an abnormally large forehead. He rubs his hands against his cheek, but before he has time to say anything, he hears a large gasp. Suddenly Kiba has been picked up into an adult’s arms, and although he is in pain, he still has his dignity. “Pu’ me dow’,” he mumbles, glaring at the teacher.

On the other hand, Sakura is rubbing her fist and placing her thumb into her mouth to suckle, hoping that she was luckier than Benny after all. The teacher kneels down to her level, the scar plain across his nose adding to the teacher’s stern scolding.

It turns out that Sakura Haruno is not luckier than her cousin Benny in the slightest.

-

From then on, Sakura is grounded and not allowed to see Ino for a week, and they are even separated far away from each other in class. Sakura is placed to the back of the class where she plops herself down next to a boy with spiky hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and a boy with spirals whirling on his cheeks. In front of her is a boy who has a dark pajama hat placed crookedly on his sun-blond hair. Two out of the three are sleeping, and Sakura is not exactly pleased to have been seated with the slackers in the group.

She has been told over and over again by her mom about the slackers, about how they suck all the life from a person and feed it to the wind, how if she were to play with slackers, she would never have energy to play and have fun, only to nap.

Sakura _hates_ napping.

She’s not sure how to get herself away from the group. She doesn’t want to be stuck with these guys, even if they seem harmless enough. She just wants to be able to get back to her friend, especially with all the notes that Ino’s been able to pass her way, telling her in butchered language that she’s working on softening their teacher, Iruka-sensei.

Sakura briefly did consider another fight, but if she were to be the one to start it, she would get in a lot of trouble. And, if she weren’t, that doesn’t mean she would want these guys to be in trouble. Kiba, the one she would think belongs with this group of guys, is seated on the front left side, and Sakura can see him clearly.

“Don’t think about it,” the boy with spiky hair mumbles, words spoken into the side of his arm.

“What?”

“I can hear you thinking about it. The best way to sit back next to Ino, although why you would want to, I don’t know, is by just acting like a good kid. Iruka-sensei is weak to that sort of stuff.”

This causes the boy in the front of their row to perk up, turning around to face them. “Are you kidding? Iruka-sensei is so tough-ttebayo!” He looks at the boy incredulously before sending a smile Sakura’s way, “Hi, my name is Naruto Uzumaki!”

While Sakura doesn’t much care for the blond boy, she isn’t rude. “Hello Naruto, I’m Haruno Sakura.” Privately, she thinks Uzumaki is a weird name for his parents to have given him, but she’s had enough people laugh at her hair to keep this to herself.

“Akimichi Chouji,” the boy with whirls mumbles, and he nudges his friend beside him.

“Ugh, I’m Nara Shikamaru.”

Naruto glances at the teacher before looking back at Sakura, “I heard that you fought Kiba yesterday! That was pretty cool!”

“Naruto, you will be able to talk to your friends after class. For now, please pay attention,” their teacher calls out. Naruto sheepishly grins at Sakura, whispering that they’ll continue this conversation after class before facing forward, although Sakura immediately notices that Naruto starts drumming on the desk.

She doesn’t really want to continue her conversation with this Naruto boy, so she decides that if he approaches after class during their scheduled playtime outside, she’ll pretend to be busy. Ino and her are not allowed to play together during recess, but Ino promised that they’ll be able to sneak away from him easily enough.

She doesn’t get the chance to play with Ino because as soon as they run outside, Sakura racing towards the flowers in the field like Ino suggested, her attention is caught by Naruto being pushed to the ground by a group of guys. She hears mentions of a girl named Hinata being yelled at Naruto.

Sakura does not care for Naruto, she knows this. She prefers Ino much more, and Naruto is a slacker. Logically, she should not care what happens to Naruto; as long as she minds her own business, everything should be fine.

**Everything would not be fine** , asserts a voice in Sakura’s head that she doesn’t recognize, that she has never heard in her life. **You will not let this happen**.

Unlike last time, she is being motivated by this unknown voice, this voice that coaches her to take step towards Naruto, this voice that tells her to clench her other, unbroken, hand, even if she can’t control it as well. Telling her that if she takes a minute step back, her punch will have more force.

Guiding her all the way up until she slams her fist into one of the boy’s nose, watching as the boy crumbles to the ground. Before the others have time to react, the voice whispers to kick one of the boys in the knee. **Don’t give them the chance to hurt you back** , the voice advises. The fight is over in a minute, with three boys’ back on the ground, seeing the same sight that Inuzuka Kiba had seen the day before, a girl with bright pink hair fanning around her as the wind picks it up. **Offer Naruto a hand**.

Sakura goes to do so, but before she can, Iruka has grabbed her gently by the shoulders, kneeled down to her level, and launched into another lecture. The lecture is a bit ironic, telling Sakura that she hasn’t come to school to fight, even though she is in-training to become a ninja.

But it doesn’t matter because Sakura isn’t focused on her teacher at all, only at the adrenalin racing through her veins and the crooning from the voice inside her head she decides to call Inner Sakura. Whatever expectations her merchant clan has on her taking over the business have been ground to dust. Sakura doesn’t just want to become a paper ninja.

Sakura wants to fight.


End file.
